I have an appreciation for Reece.
His enthusiasm for transit and interest in and knowledge of it is broad.
That said, I can't get behind a number of things in this video.
***
Let me start w/the positive, there is certainly a case to be made for double-ended cars, which to have any utility would need to have doors on both sides. That said, the additional doors would nix a lot of seats which would make many people unhappy; and I'm less persuaded by the argument for longer vehicles which would partially offset this.
I'm certainly happy to endorse better switches.
Expansion of the network is fine in general (his suggestion of Queen West to Park Lawn is already in the plans); Waterfront East and West extensions make eminent sense as well.
Some of the other ideas are, um, a tad quirky.
***
The notion of Island Platforms on Spadina would require wider platforms than those on the side today; the current side platforms are often dangerously crowded as it is, and an island would have to be able to handle loading/unloading of north and southbound vehicles at the same time.
That's fine, as far as it goes, but it would require removing car lanes on Spadina (not an easy sell); and total reconstruction of the track/ROW at intersections/stops. That's a lot of effort, money and disruption for something that doesn't, to my mind deliver much tangible gain.
The notion of running a streetcar up Main street from Kingston Road or Victoria Park is peculiar.
Victoria Park from Kingston to Gerrard is one lane each way, so the streetcar track would occupy the entire road, that would preclude an exclusive ROW and there's no other lines to interconnect with at that point.
Main is likewise narrow, there is a redundancy gain, but its quite small vs the capital outlay. Neither connection would facilitate removing an existing bus route.
Dupont is a suggestion for a new route; but the service it would replace is currently very low ridership. It gets only 3,800 boardings a day; that strikes me as something well short of justifying an LRT/Streetcar.
While Cosburn is nominally 13,000+ (still low for LRT); the truth is the bulk of its ridership is generated at the extreme east and west ends of the route.
Also, there's a need to serve a seniors home that's off Cosburn on a fairly steep grade. All that and Cosburn is already one lane each way, thus precluding any exclusive ROW (and lots of single family home driveways and those of large apartment buildings further restrain that possibility.
Portions of the route also operate on narrow, single-family home side streets. This would likely not go over well w/homeowners and would require eliminating parking.
But there are also some brutal (likely too small) turning radii on the route, in several spots. The cost of alteration would be significant.
***
I'm also challenged by the idea that a mixed fleet with 3 or more vehicle types (of LRT) would be desirable on the legacy network.
If the TTC could buy off-the-shelf there might be some case for that, but as also streetcars made for the legacy network require customization for TTC gauge, for the tight turning radii, and for the standard of being able to push another streetcar up the Bathurst Hill; that's a lot of cost to add to small orders.
I'm not saying there wouldn't be utility in carrying an additional model at any given time.........I just think the notion of 3-4 or more is questionable.
www.ttc.ca
